AMD keeps Athlon name for some CPUs

Although rumors came out that AMD was planning to drop the Athlon name altogether since the introduction of their number-based CPU naming scheme, it turns out that some chips will still retain the name. Specifically, the dual-core K10 based CPUs will continue to be called Athlons, adding yet another kink into their product line.

AMD has renamed many of their products in recent years, from introducing the Phenom and renaming many of the Athlons, to changing the Radeon naming scheme and more. Most recently they introduced a five-digit naming scheme that was hinted at earlier. Why all the name changes? Many are encouraged by the performance aspects of AMD's recent 45nm CPUs, but the company could end up hurting themselves if they make actually buying one a confusing task.